Anonymous Retaliates Against Baptist Church Provocation

The hacktivist group Anonymous has taken down websites belonging to the controversial Westboro Baptist Church in retaliation for recent media outbursts, a member said in a live radio interview.

The attack took place just days after Anonymous issued a statement claiming that it had no plans of attacking the church's websites and that an earlier letter sent to the church on behalf of the group was a hoax. The hackers were apparently riled by the church's contsant bad-mouthing in the media.

Despite the clarification, the church, known for its anti-gay rhetoric, challenged Anonymous to try and hack their website, asking them to 'bring it'.

The attacked has duly followed, defacing the church's main website with a message that explained the hack was a result of Westboro's media hogging.

According to Computer World, before the attack the websites were suffering downtime for several days owing to heavy DDoS bombardment by a hacker calling himself The Jester.

Shirley Phelps-Roper, a spokesperson for the Westboro Baptist Church, said that Anonymous had to try hard to break into the church's network.

“What they did was break into one server. They tried mightily for four days. They got nothing. I'm [really quite] sure they worked it all out before,” she said in a statement.